Video: At 18, She Was Confined To a Wheelchair. Today, She’s a Sports Superstar!

Nisha Gupta has emerged as an inspiration to people across India after she overcame a terrible accident which left her wheelchair bound.

Nisha was just 18 when she slipped and fell, suffering a spinal fracture. The result was that she was confined to a wheelchair.

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“I couldn’t accept what had happened to me. I had all these negative thoughts and felt so demotivated. My dream was to be an air hostess, and now I couldn’t,” she informs The Better India.

That was when sports came into her life. Beginning with swimming, she also expanded her horizons to include basketball. She now plays in a team of other para-athletes, part of the Maharashtra Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team.

Slowly, but surely, things started to take a turn for this young woman. She began making friends, and she realised she was much happier than she had been in years!

“I swim only with my hands. Before, people used to demotivate me. Now, they use me as an example to others. I feel so happy, and lucky that I have met such good friends, who have motivated me to do better, and try new things”, she explains.

As part of her rehabilitation, she would visit the All India Rehabilitation Centre, where other people who were in a similar condition, would wait to hear her story, and be inspired by her journey. Nisha is a shining example that hope is never lost, and that it is possible to fight back in the face of adversity.

Vitamin Stree, part of Supari Studios, a content platform which focuses on cultural, political, artistic and ideological perspectives, met Nisha as part of a series they were doing.

Executive Producer, Tara Kapur says, “We were working on a concept where we wanted to showcase how fitness was not defined by physical limitations, and we found her story inspirational. We saw that though the team was playing together really well and supporting each other, they lacked the proper infrastructure and facilities to reach their true potential. That’s why we wanted to do something for them.”

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The basketball team currently shares wheelchairs, and they book grounds for practice in various schools and campuses. Vitamin Stree wants to support Nisha’s dreams, and the dreams of hundreds like her, to make India more friendly towards those with disabilities, and are raising funds for the same.

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Watch the video below, to see how Nisha continues to follow her dreams, and inspire people with her determination!

You can contribute to the cause here: www.milaap.org/fundraisers/vitaminstree

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